


Protecting His Own

by charactersreadtheirstorysfan



Series: The StrawHat Pirates Always Protect Their Own [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: BAMF Zoro, Gen, Luffy Protects Everyone, Sabo effected Luffy Terribly in a more subtle way, Usopp isn't dumb, and he wont, and in turn they all try to protect him, bamf luffy, but he is scared, but they both scarred him, let anything like that happen ever again, scary zoro, smoker comes to realize things, the ace's death did
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-06 00:12:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5395403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charactersreadtheirstorysfan/pseuds/charactersreadtheirstorysfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because there is rage in his eyes – an untamed fire. Even Smoker has to take a step back because the look in Luffy's eyes are terrifying and burn bright with promise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chopper

Because there is rage in his eyes – an untamed fire. When Luffy steps forward in a way that makes him seem bigger than he is- in a way that encompasses his whole crew and swaddles them in protection- he is full of righteous rage that only comes about when he protects his own. The Straw Hats notice the protection and react in various ways, Smoker notices.

The orange-haired girl – Nami his mind supplies- has a small smile on her face like she has been protected like this before (and she has. She will never forget Arlong Park and the fact that Luffy loved her enough to give her his hat even back then) and her eyes are so warm and full of gratitude as she gazes on her captain that Smoker turns away.

Sanji, the lanky cook in the black suit that loves his captain just as much as he loves food, leans against a nearby tree and while he looks as relaxed as a pirate can be in the presence of a Marine there is violence in his eyes and Smoker sees- only because he's looking- the way he keeps glancing at his fellow crew mates in a way that is both calculating and protective but never does his glance stray to Luffy. Smoker wonders why but will never ask and so he'll never know (If he had any member of the crew could've told you that watching Luffy in this mindset fell only to one person, and one person alone).

Usopp stands tall but does not reach for weapons, though he does move back towards Nami who is standing the farthest away from any of the Marines. To hide or protect, Smoker isn't sure. (It isn't either because his stupid captainbrotherfriend is sometimes too reckless but he knows that when Luffy is like this, when he's protecting them- no one is going to get past him- but his captain might order them back to the ship and Nami would be the only one to protest- the sister that always wants to make sure nobody gets left behind, not ever again).

Zoro watches his captain and re-belts his swords- he knows he won't need them- not with the Marines trying to attack Luffy's Crewmates. He smirks at Smoker and lets him see the cold promise in his eyes if Smoker would lay a hand on Luffy, Devil Fruit be damned, he was going to kill him-mercilessly. Because there is a reason that Zoro follows, and will only follow, Luffy.

Then Smoker's eyes focus on the scene in front of him and even he takes a step back from the look in Luffy's eyes. Suddenly Smoker realizes that this man will become King of the Pirates and his legacy won't be the One Piece like Gol. D. Roger.

This is Luffy's legacy- protecting his own.

So when Luffy steps towards the low ranked Marine and his eyes are filled with fire so reminiscent to the fire that was once a part of his brother and demands that the military scum holding Chopper- his crewmatefriendlittlebrother (and Luffy won't ever let a brother die again) The officer drops him immediately. Luffy's eyes- so full of bright flames- bank into smoldering onyx and if anything, this makes his expression even more terrifying. Flames are clean, simple but this there is nothing clean or simple about Luffy's eyes now.

Smoker actually drops his cigars on the ground when he sees the look on Luffy's face. He would be the first to admit that he has done horrible things, seen horrible things. Hell, he chases after pirates for a living but nothing has terrified him as much as Monkey D. Luffy defending his own.

Once Smoker thought Zoro was the strongest member of the Straw Hats, regardless that Luffy was the captain, but now he's seen Luffy protect his own and even the cold glinted promise in Zoro's eyes doesn't scare as much as the expression on Luffy's face does.

With a smile as wide as the ocean and as warm as the mountain that Chopper joined the crew on, Luffy grabs Chopper and hands him carefully to Nami like he's one of the most precious things in the world to Luffy- and really he is. As he turns his grin stretches too wide and shows too many teeth to be anything but a threat, a silent warning.

"If you, or anyone else, ever touch my Nakama again I won't kill you." Luffy states with the same wide grin on his face but his are aflame once again. "But I will make you wish I had." Not one person, Marine or Pirate, doubts his sincerity.

Luffy turns and the flames in his eyes and posture of warrior disappear with nothing left to even hint that they were there in the first place. But Smoker knows what he saw and he has to ask. He steps forward and locks his knees so they won't shake. Zoro might not be the scariest thing he's ever seen anymore but he's pretty damn close and those icy eyes are glinting in the afternoon sun. He watches Zoro's hands come to rest on his swords but Smoker doesn't attack, doesn't make any threatening moves, and doesn't even think to because he's not an idiot. Instead he asks a question he's wanted to know the answer to for a long time because the Straw Hats have always been more than just a crew.

"Why?" Smoker asks gruffly, there is no need to clarify what he means.

As soon as Luffy turns around Smoker can feel every particle in his body ready to turn to smoke so he can flee at the first hint at a fight (he's no coward but he knows he stands no chance against Luffy, not with protecting his crew on the forefront of his mind) because the look in Luffy's eyes are terrifying and burn bright with promise.

"Because," Luffy says, his eyes full of grief and the beginning of an inferno and all Smoker can think is 'oh no, I get it now' before Luffy continues. "I won't lose anyone ever again." There is fire and rage in those eyes both ancient and timeless and those eyes lead Smoker to a sudden moment of clarity.

He realizes that Luffy's grief and fire and rage wasn't just caused by the death of Firefist (although that could be what caused such an amplification of his protective instincts) he has lost someone or something incredibly important before. Before Smoker can stupidly ask -'who else, what else, did you have to lose to be able to make eyes like that?'- Straw-hat has already bounded forward and tackled the blonde cook with a loud, boisterous proclamation of, "I'm hungry Sanji!"

And then the crew disappears and Smoker is left with a soul deep belief that the new King of the Pirates is going to be Monkey D. Luffy and that he's going to be an even better king then Gol D. Roger could ever have even hoped to be.


	2. Robin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While exploring an Island Robin, Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro encounter someone who wishes to cash in on Robin's bounty. You can imagine how well that goes over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters may be a little OOC and it’s been a few years since I’ve watched One Piece but an AMV really inspired me to write this chapter.

When the screams wrench through the air like cutting blades, when the sound of fighting and hurting and excitement lulls and Robin falls, there is silence. 

A silence so loud that it stuns all in the vicinity just by the duality of a loud, desperate silence. 

Zoro, the ever-loyal first mate, does not stop. He glides through the battleground killing all the enemies in his wake. He is a flash of blades and just as cold as the metal of his swords. He is not rage and fire, that is not his role. 

He is the silence in the night, the wind of the storm, fast and ruthless and so very deadly. The wind does not care about collateral damage, it simply does. That is what Zoro was before Luffy found him and as much as Luffy is a friend, he is also a boundary, for as long as there is Luffy there is a tether keeping Zorro from simply fighting and raging and destroying and never stopping (for who did he have to stop for, before Luffy and his crewmates?). 

Sanji doesn’t even bother with the enemies, going to Robin first. He loves his female crewmates like he loves all his crewmates, although he’ll never admit it. He is too much of a gentleman to be serious about his passes at uninterested women but he does have a reputation to keep up…and the others simply understand. His reaction to woman too engrained, too much of a façade and defense mechanism, to change now.

He kicks and breaks and shatters when he has to but he does not stop. Quick and swift and as deadly as a lightning strike, he takes a moment to relish the fact Nami, Chopper, and Usopp are gathering supplies and that only Zoro, Robin, and Luffy came with him to explore the island. Not because they were a burden or unworthy but because the fallout of this was going to be worse than that time with Smoker. There was no prior relationship with this bastard to save him, no ignorance in his actions. 

To attack Robin when their backs were turned all over a simple bounty (and not even Luffy’s bounty but Robin’s herself, thinking her weaker simply because she was a woman) was unacceptable. 

There was no pity for this weak-willed pig of a man in him, if Luffy would punch a celestial dragon for the insult against a new friend what would he do for one as old as Robin? For all that she was any enemy to start, she is a treasured friend now.

Robin knows as she falls that something is going to happen. She is prepared for the yelling, the screaming, the rage; but not the silence.  
She looks up from her position on the ground, where she fell from the surprise attack from a fat, drunkard with his unkempt hair and grease-creased clothes who had a gang following him. 

She is not hurt, although something inside of her burns at being caught unaware because she is a pirate and how can she protect her friends if she can’t even protect herself? but her injury is not why Luffy is angry.

No, it is the fact that someone attacked her when her back was turned and Luffy did not see it coming that has him so enraged. When she sees Luffy she stills – this is what others see when Luffy tests his will against theirs (she’d seen an inkling of it when he faced Crocodile but nothing so tempered, forged even hotter, even more ruthless with the death of Ace) Robin is normally fighting right alongside Luffy so she never sees- but now she does and the look in his eyes makes her wonder how anyone could ever doubt he would be Pirate King. 

Luffy steps forward and the world blurs and in that moment there is no time or space or impossibility. 

There is Luffy. 

And there is his will.

The Haki pouring off of him drops the people in the vicinity (excluding his crew, because he could never hurt them in anyway) and he gets right in the face of her attacker and bears his teeth.

It is not a smile, it is not a grimace, it is not the bearing of teeth a predator gives its pray. It is the bearing of teeth a shark would give a plankton, an abject predator looking at something so weak their presence is a nuisance at most, nothing to worry about. Then he leans forward and whispers in that greasy man’s ear and the man’s eyes go wide with panic and Luffy steps back. 

Quietly. Cleanly. The opposite of what Luffy embodies (but Luffy has always been the shadow, and many people will argue and say he is the light, and Robin can see their point, but Luffy is the one eclipsing his enemies and surging ahead to meet the next enemy, next challenge (the light) long before it ever reaches where it was trying to go.)

Luffy is the one who changes people, eclipses things in the past with his smile and words and charm. And Luffy is also the one who hides beneath a veneer, oh it is not all fake (he is not that good) but it is not all truth. 

Luffy is very smart but not in the way intelligence is normally judged, he knows people. Their joys and triumphs and their fears and weaknesses. Being a shadow does not mean Luffy is dark or sad or not his bright, optimistic self (dark isn’t inherently bad just as light isn’t inherently good) but Luffy simply has more in common with a shadow.

Luffy runs no risk of burning himself or his friends to ashes for his endeavors, he cloaks them, keeps the safe, and he would never climb too close to the sun for there is no too close for Luffy.

(Besides, how could Luffy stand to be the Sun if he could not even reignite the flame of his brother?)

The grimy leader stays, in shock where Luffy had talked to him, threatened him, and the man’s gang is piled around him, dead or alive Robin does not know (and does not care too). Instead, she gingerly steps forward with Sanji hovering behind her and Zoro playing both lookout and silent support and grasps Luffy’s shoulder. 

He stiffness at her touch, his eyes serious.

“I was thinking about Tuna for lunch.” Robin says, instead of all the other things she could say. Things like thank you, it’s enough, you are my family Luffy but you can’t always predict everything, because really her sentence says all of that if you know how to look.

“TUNA! TUNA! Come on Sanji I’m HUNGRY!” Luffy sings as he takes a bouncing step forward but not before squeezing Robin’s hand. Luffy has always been good at reading what is going on underneath the words said and Robin loves him for it. 

Robin knows this incident will stick with Luffy for a while, the potential to lose any member of his crew hits him so much harder after Ace’s death, but she also knows he’ll get over it and that he will let her fight her own battles unless she asks for help or desperately needs it.

That just endears her to her captain more. Losing, being tricked or fooled or distracted enough to miss seeing an attack, and he will defend you and he will not blame your skills but simply see to it that you train more, are more aware. Luffy makes them stronger.

And that is why Robin, why the crew of the Straw Hats will defend him to their deaths (any maybe even beyond that).


End file.
